At the moment nobody is working on Tails (or Knuckles) because Sonic is still being polished up and everyone else is working on their own thing. As for whether or not that sprite is going to be the final or not I can't tell you for certain since I'm not in charge of the character art, but I have a feeling it'll change some. I'm sure Vincent will be along soon to tell you more.

Indeed it should change. The shading at the base of his chest's white hair makes it look like he is either wearing a plain of snow or a marshmallow.

As Gambit anticipated, Tails and Knuckles remasterings hasn't started yet.If any community artist wants to provide mockups of him, they are much welcome!

I actually started doing these sprites before I realized I didn't have a vector program or a way to draw in vector at the time, so I abandoned it, but I did this based on an older submission that used to be up on the site if you wouldn't mind considering it a 'mockup', if it helps...

It's shaded with Paint Shop's basic pallet. All the others I have are sketches not shaded or in pieces. (His limbs are literally everywhere.) I didn't realize his tails weren't supposed to be ground-level with his feet until I looked at Sonic 2 again. Before, I was going off the sprites which have his body and tails as separate sprites, just to say that I know it's wrong on this one.

But about the one posted, I actually wanted to give some feedback on what I thought of it... But when I looked at the larger image closer I realized "Hey, this isn't even cleaned up!" but I did want to bring up something about the representation of the character himself, if that's alright...

He's smiling. This bothers me because in the old games, I never imagined Tails would be smiling. What gave me this impression, especially when he's at top speed, flying back to Sonic or swimming on Sonic 3, was that he either looked tired, nervous or like he's trying to be brave. This was re-enforced by some Sonic 2 concept art (Sketched) that showed him running (the wobbly little canter he does before he spins his tails for speed) and his face had an '=o' expression, like he was either exerting energy running after Sonic or like he was saying in his mind "I gotta be brave" and then to the right of that it showed him at full speed, tails spinning and all, and he has the '>=(' face, the serious one, and the games did reflect that in his top speed sprite. So I feel like him smiling takes away from his character at that point in his life.

I did read a topic posted about how some thought Sonic shouldn't smile in his sprites, and how, in his official art, he would always be smiling like a cocky little bastard, and how it fit his character more and I agree: I think all the Sonic sprites are fantastic in representing Sonic, so this isn't a 'The characters never smiled in the games" statement, since it's a little hard to tell on pixels what they were doing (Even though I think Sonic 3's Sonic sprite looked like he was having a ball throughout the entire game, until he died, because I suck.) but I'm just basing this off what expressions I could read (open mouth while Tails flies in Sonic 2's sprites) and the concept art. I need to find it again, it used to be up on Sonic Stadium but all the images from that site are gone.

Edit: And they never put them back up. Maybe SEGA made a property claim?

Anyway, I know what the boxart of him looks like, but after digging through Sonic Retro's archive, I found some artwork that has him looking nervous or uncertain while Sonic maintains his smile. This is only one.

It's just one of my concerns though, and I hope it will be considered when someone starts work on his final sprites.

Since work still hasn't started regarding Tails, and the art direction is leaning more towards the official artwork now, it would be interesting to have a Tails sprite in that same position, but with the correct proportions. It might not look too good in HD having his legs look so short and chubby only when standing still.

Since work still hasn't started regarding Tails, and the art direction is leaning more towards the official artwork now, it would be interesting to have a Tails sprite in that same position, but with the correct proportions. It might not look too good in HD having his legs look so short and chubby only when standing still.

Here's some examples to refresh your memories.

The links don't work and don't show up in the post.

It's an old sprite, and it's done in pixels, so it looks odd. I only posted it to show what I thought his expression would look like in-game, when not trying to look excited or at-his-best on the title screen.

QUOTE (Hamneggs @ Apr 20 2010, 06:21 PM)

Indeed it should change. The shading at the base of his chest's white hair makes it look like he is either wearing a plain of snow or a marshmallow.

Sorry, I missed this at first. I agree, it doesn't look like the stomach curves with his body, his eyes are too small, his ears' shading makes them look polygonal and a little small and the glare on his head is a little light... The lightest glare he had was a light yellow, but not white.

EDIT: Sorry, just realized that my post could be easily misconstrued. I was talking about the expression on his face. He's got these great big puppy dog eyes and this pout that makes him look so fragile and helpless, and it makes me laugh to think about watching the game start up, and seeing Tails with that sort of face.

I'm pretty sure that when it's time to focus on Tails, more attention will be given to the concept art like ICEknight posted up. Energetic, dynamic Tails works far better than Deer-in-the-headlights, chubby Tails.

Right. I should have thought of that since I have too much Tails official art clogging my hard drive.

I never intended to come off as if I thought the official artwork was a bad example, just that Tails smiling in his sprites looked strange, especially since there are some sprites in Sonic 2 and 3 that suggest he doesn't smile. His 'sign' in Sonic 3 even represented him as having an indifferent face, and it's not just because of the limits of pixels since in the bonus stage mini games his icon is smiling.

If I need more than that, I can provide it, but I'll stop there so it doesn't look like I'm driving the same nail into a wall that doesn't need any more.

QUOTE (subsubstantive @ Apr 21 2010, 07:04 PM)

—eff I May..?

Sure, I take it as a compliment, even though that picture is old it's nice to know someone found a use for it.

QUOTE (RedStripedShoes @ Apr 21 2010, 12:55 PM)

QUOTE (Volpino @ Apr 21 2010, 11:52 AM)

QUOTE (RedStripedShoes @ Apr 21 2010, 12:43 PM)

QUOTE (Volpino @ Apr 20 2010, 07:09 PM)

I burst out laughing when I saw that. That was just great.

Was it funny in a way that doesn't reflect badly on me?

What? I was just saying it was a funny picture.

EDIT: Sorry, just realized that my post could be easily misconstrued. I was talking about the expression on his face. He's got these great big puppy dog eyes and this pout that makes him look so fragile and helpless, and it makes me laugh to think about watching the game start up, and seeing Tails with that sort of face.

That last bit made me laugh, but that was what I was going for. To me, he looks very nervous in his sprites with the big cute eyes and the often indifferent expression on his face. He wasn't meant to look helpless though, just nervous and uncertain. If I ever manage to make some of these freeware programs work, I'll keep in mind not to give him puppy eyes again and not to trace the sprites exactly. (Or copy old pictures from Sonic Retro that weere replaced by newer ones. )